Reducing File Sizes for INITLFILE.LOG & SYACTLOG.BTR

Reducing File Sizes for INITLFILE.LOG & SYACTLOG.BTR

Q - Is there a way to reduce the size of the INITFILE.LOG and SYACTLOG.BTR files? We saved the GL section in a separate folder so we can copy a set of files from the live folder, and we have done so for several years. These files are now several hundred MB in size, so we'd like to reduce them.

A - The simple answer is to just delete them. They will be re-created automatically in Elliott starting from a minimum size. If you want, you can also save these two files to an archive folder somewhere before you delete them. Here is what they do:

  • INITFILE.LOG - This is a log file that records any Elliott data file's initialization activity. If you have not used this file before, you don't really need it. 
  • SYACTLOG.BTR - This is the user login and logout activities, including the eStore website login activities. It also contains the log of mass emails or any emails that you send through the Elliott user interface. 
  • You can view the content in this file by bringing up an eContact  and choosing the Activity tab.  The same tab contains the activities of emails sent to this user through the Elliott user interface. See the first attached sample screen below.
  • You can view the regular Elliott user's login and logout activities by going to Password Setup and bringing up any user in change mode. Then click on the "Special Function" tool bar icon and choose "User Activity." See the second attached sample screen below.
  • If you've never used these functions before, then you don't really need them in my opinion. 
We currently don't have utility programs to purge these two files by date range. To purge INITFILE.LOG by date range, you can use an editor like NOTEPAD.  To purge SYACTLOG.BTR by date range, you will need to use PSQL Control Center and issue a SQL statement like:
   
DELETE from SYACTLOG where SYACTLOG_DATE < 20150101
Keep in mind that after the deletion, the SYACTLOG.BTR file size does not decrease.  Often, it will increase in physical disk size.  This has to do with how PSQL handles data integrity.  To claim your disk space back after using the above DELETE SQL statement, you will have to use the "Rebuild" utility provided by PSQL.

eContact Activities Tab


User Activities Under Password Setup -> Special Function




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